Policy

The outlook for U.S. residential solar remains strong, according to Jesse Pichel of ROTH Capital Partners. The large-scale segment, however, is hampered by rising costs and the likelihood of sanctions on Xinjiang-made materials.

According to a new study by the Fraunhofer ISE, there is more than enough space for this huge growth in installed solar PV capacity. Indeed, if all available areas were used for PV – including opencast mines, facades, roads, and agricultural land used in combination with solar power generation – over 3,000 GW could be deployed.

China’s battery manufacturing industry is growing robustly in line with the rapid expansion of the electric vehicle market. The stationary storage sector currently lags behind developments in leading markets such as the United States and Europe, but strong growth is expected between now and 2030, driven by supportive policies. Fang-Wei Yuan, a senior analyst at InfoLink, examines the latest developments in China’s energy storage industry and looks at the announcements and product launches made at the Shanghai SNEC exhibition back in June.

On August 5, the French energy regulator published the bidding rules for a new series of solar and renewable energy tenders. The application deadline is between October and December 2021.

Solar developer NEFIN and electric company Tuas Power have tabled a joint bid to secure the rights to supply 100 MWh of ‘zero-carbon electricity’ from Malaysia to Singapore and said they initially intend to use “brown power” to secure supply during non-solar-generation hours.

There is also news of a 1.1 GW central inverter procurement contract, a pending IPO for solar cell player Runergy, and a $700 million-plus solar glass supply contract.

Plus there is news this week of a green hydrogen tie-up in India, plans for another German production facility, and of new hydrogen transport networks for Switzerland and the U.S.

Paris intends to secure 34 GW of solar, onshore wind and hydroelectric generation capacity by 2026 by offering generators premium payments – determined by competitive reverse-bidding among developers – to top-up the market electricity price.

An announcement by GCL-Poly to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange yesterday about the company’s hydrogen plans made no mention of any intent to deploy carbon capture tech to mitigate the emissions of what would otherwise be considered a ‘grey’, fossil fuel version of the energy storage medium.

The TotalEnergies-controlled solar manufacturer will secure an, as yet undetermined chunk of a new €118.6 million low-carbon innovation fund to start producing its frameless, glass-free solar roofing products at Porcelette, in northeastern France.